Judge postpones Evergreen election again; voting with redrawn political map set for June

View full sizeThese are the Evergreen City Council districts approved by U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade. District 1 is 64.2 percent black; District 4 is 86.9 percent black; District 5 is 83.5 percent black. Meanwhile, District 2 is 31.5 percent black and District 3 is 45.7 percent black.

MOBILE, Alabama – A federal judge this afternoon postponed a long-delayed municipal election in Evergreen, pushing the voting back to June 18 after conducting a telephone conference with lawyers in a voting-rights lawsuit.

Attorneys for the Conecuh County seat requested the postponement, citing a need for more time by a special master appointed to oversee the balloting. U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade agreed, ordering the June 18 vote, with a runoff on July 30 if needed.

John Tanner, an attorney for three black residents who sued the city over the way it redrew council districts after the 2010 census, said the delay is the result of city officials’ failure to include the plaintiffs’ representative in discussions with the special master. But he said another postponement probably could not be avoided.

“We couldn’t put the toothpaste back in the tube as it turns out,” he said.

Mayor Pete Wolff III and the council members now have been in office eight months past the expiration of their terms in August. The court canceled the election that was scheduled for that month after finding fault with the city’s redistricting efforts.

The plaintiffs alleged that the city illegally gerrymandered the five districts in order to maintain a white majority on the council despite the fact that Evergreen’s population now is 62 percent black. Granade in March ordered a new political map based largely on the one that the plaintiffs had proposed. It creates three districts with large black majorities.

Tanner said it was most important that the special master, former Montgomery County elections official Bert Estes, had enough time to prepare for the voting.

“This will give everyone plenty of time to do what they need to do,” he said.

Under Granade’s order, the city will give notice of the election on May 2. June 3 will be the last day to appoint election officials and the first day to test voting machines. The city will have until June 6 to publish a list of election officials and polling places.

The last day to register to vote will be June 7.

Granade’s order lists June 13 as the deadline for providing poll worker training, publishing the list of registered voters and applying for absentee ballots.